PinnedUpdated July 23, 2025, 1:16 p.m. ETThe surviving roommates of four Idaho college students killed by Bryan Kohberger, a former Ph.D. student in criminology, delivered emotional statements on Wednesday explaining for the first time their actions on the morning that he stabbed their friends, telling him his attack on their shared home that night “changed everything.”“Because of him,” said one of the two survivors, Dylan Mortensen, “four beautiful, genuine, compassionate people were taken from this world for no reason.” Mr. Kohberger, wearing an orange jumpsuit, gazed at Ms. Mortensen and other friends and family members of his victims as they spoke at his sentencing in Boise, Idaho.Several family members took the opportunity to berate Mr. Kohberger, telling him that they hoped he would face violence in jail and calling him a coward and a failure. Randy Davis, the stepfather of one of the victims, concluded by telling him to “go to hell.”Mr. Kohberger, 30, agreed to four consecutive life sentences as part of a plea deal that allows him to avoid execution for the fatal stabbing of the four University of Idaho students early on Nov. 13, 2022. But many questions remain unanswered, including one that has vexed investigators and families for years: What was the motive?In a hearing on July 2, Mr. Kohberger took full responsibility, but said nothing about how or why the murders occurred. It was not clear whether he planned to make a statement on Wednesday.Here’s what to know:The killer: Mr. Kohberger was a student at nearby Washington State University but was not identified as a suspect until several weeks later, after investigators used DNA found on a knife sheath to build a genetic family tree that led them to him. Questions immediately arose about his training in criminology; he had researched high-profile murders under the teaching of an expert on serial killers. Read more ›The victims: Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, had spent a typical Saturday night out before returning to the three-story house in Moscow, Idaho, that several of the students shared. Prosecutors have said Mr. Kohberger had no known relationship to the victims. Read more ›The survivors: Text messages from the hours after the killing show that the surviving roommates discussed a masked person that one of them had briefly seen inside the home. But neither seemed aware that something horrific had happened to their friends. A 911 call was made more than seven hours later, after several additional friends gathered at the home.Explanations wanted: Some family members have expressed outrage that prosecutors agreed to drop the death penalty in exchange for a guilty plea. Even President Trump weighed in. “I hope the Judge makes Kohberger, at a minimum, explain why he did these horrible murders,” Mr. Trump posted on social media. “There are no explanations, there is no NOTHING.” Read more ›July 23, 2025, 1:26 p.m. ETMike BakerReporting from the courthouse in BoiseThe judge offered Kohberger a chance to make a statement. “I respectfully decline,” he said. Someone from the courtroom audience then called him a “coward.”July 23, 2025, 1:24 p.m. ETMike BakerReporting from the courthouse in BoiseThompson, the prosecutor, put up a photo of the four victims and the two surviving roommates all together, an image that was taken just hours before the killings. He called the six friends a “special family.” One of the surviving roommates, Dylan Mortensen, bowed her head in tears as he spoke.July 23, 2025, 1:19 p.m. ETMike BakerReporting from the courthouse in BoiseThompson showed a photo of each victim as he summarized the counts against Kohberger and the life sentence for each. One family member cried aloud as a photo appeared on the screen in front of the courtroom.July 23, 2025, 1:16 p.m. ETBill Thompson, the prosecutor, acknowledged that some victims’ families have opposed the plea deal, which allows Kohberger to avoid the death penalty by pleading guilty and waiving his right to appeal. “I respect the fact that, of these fine suffering people here, not everyone agreed with the decision we made,” Thompson said.July 23, 2025, 1:10 p.m. ETThe victim impact statements have concluded, and Bill Thompson, the top prosecutor in Latah County, where the crimes occurred, addressed the court.July 23, 2025, 1:10 p.m. ETDylan Mortensen, a surviving roommate, cried during the sentencing of Bryan Kohberger on Wednesday.Credit...Kyle Green/Associated PressTwo roommates who were in the house when four of their friends were fatally stabbed near the University of Idaho in 2022 shared their accounts publicly for the first time on Wednesday, describing feelings of loss, guilt and terror.Dylan Mortensen, one of the surviving roommates, spoke through tears and sharp breaths at the sentencing hearing for Bryan Kohberger, 30, who admitted to the murders this month as part of a plea deal that spared him from the death penalty. He is expected to be sentenced to life in prison later on Wednesday.Ms. Mortensen described having to sleep in her mother’s bed following the murders, afraid to even close her eyes.“If I blinked, someone might be there,” she said.One of the enduring mysteries of the November 2022 killings has been why neither Ms. Mortensen nor the other surviving roommate, Bethany Funke, called 911 for more than seven hours after the attacks. Ms. Mortensen told investigators that she had seen a masked man moving through the house in the middle of the night but retreated back to her room. She texted her roommates and, when there was no response, hunkered down in Ms. Funke’s room until about noon, when friends came to the house and discovered the body of one of the victims.In court on Wednesday, Ms. Mortensen did not talk about what she witnessed that night. But Ms. Funke, who wrote a statement that was read in court by a friend, described feeling guilt over not doing more, saying she had been unaware of what had taken place upstairs.“If I had known, I, of course, would have called 911 right away,” Ms. Funke said in her statement. “I still carry so much regret and guilt for not knowing what had happened and not calling right away, even though I understand it wouldn’t have changed anything, not even if the paramedics had been right outside the door.”Families of three victims also addressed the court during the hearing on Wednesday. Some relatives spoke directly to Mr. Kohberger, who wore an orange jumpsuit and looked at them as they spoke but did not visibly react. Several of them spoke openly about the possibility that he might face physical assault in prison.Steve Goncalves, the father of one of the victims, Kaylee Goncalves, stood at a lectern facing Mr. Kohberger and said he would continue to avoid speaking his name and use only his initials.“In time, you will be nothing but two initials, forgotten to the wind,” Mr. Goncalves said. “No visitors, nothing more than initials on an otherwise unmarked tombstone.”Jazzmin Kernodle described the important moments that she had hoped to experience with her sister, Xana Kernodle, another one of the victims.“Xana didn’t get the future she deserved,” she said. “She won’t be the maid of honor at my wedding, the cool aunt to my future children. I’ll never hear her laugh or see her light up a room ever again, but I will carry her with me for the rest of my life.”The family of Ethan Chapin, the only male victim, said they would not be attending the sentencing hearing.Mr. Kohberger’s mother was in the courtroom and watched as the victims’ relatives and friends spoke, shuddering at times and in one instance putting her head in her hands.When Kim Cheeley, the grandmother of victim Madison Mogen, addressed the court, she included a sympathetic reference to Mr. Kohberger’s family.“My heart aches for the kids’ roommates and the families of the other victims, and also the family of the perpetrator,” Ms. Cheeley said.Families of the victims have expressed different views of the plea agreement, with some saying they had hoped Mr. Kohberger would be sentenced to death, and others expressing relief that they could avoid a lengthy and grisly trial.The plea deal has also left many lingering questions about the case unresolved, with Mr. Kohberger admitting to the murders but not shedding any light on his motive.Ms. Goncalves’s older sister, Alivea Goncalves, pressed Mr. Kohberger in her statement in court to provide answers.“Where is the murder weapon?” she asked. “What were Kaylee’s last words?”“Do you feel anything at all?”July 23, 2025, 1:09 p.m. ETMike BakerReporting from the courthouse in BoiseCara Northington, the mother of Xana Kernodle, a victim, said she had forgiven Kohberger and prays for him. But she added: “I am washing my hands of you.”Credit...Kyle Green/Associated PressJuly 23, 2025, 1:08 p.m. ETStratton Kernodle, an uncle of Xana, a victim, said the killer had affected not only the victims’ families, but also his own. He said Kohberger would have to live with having “tainted” his family name and making it a “miserable thing to ever be related to him.”July 23, 2025, 1:04 p.m. ETKim Kernodle, an aunt of the victim Xana Kernodle, said she had forgiven the killer. “I no longer could live with that hate in my heart,” she said, adding: “Any time you want to talk and tell me what happened, get my number.”July 23, 2025, 12:52 p.m. ETJazzmin Kernodle described moments that she had hoped to experience with her sister, Xana Kernodle, one of the victims. Because of the killer, she said, Xana would never be able to be the maid of honor in her wedding, or the “cool aunt” to her future children.July 23, 2025, 12:46 p.m. ETMike BakerReporting from the courthouse in BoiseReturning to the courtroom after a short break before statements from victims’ family members resumed, Kohberger smiled at his mother. She nodded back at him.July 23, 2025, 12:39 p.m. ETA memorial at the University of Idaho campus in 2022. Credit...Rajah Bose for The New York TimesLong before he admitted to carrying out a notorious killing spree in Idaho, Bryan Kohberger had shown interest in capturing criminals and had studied under an expert in serial killers.Mr. Kohberger, now 30, agreed to a sentence of life in prison for the 2022 crime, in which four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death, pleading guilty in a deal that spared him from a potential death penalty.At the time of the killings, he was a Ph.D. student in criminal justice and criminology at Washington State University, a 15-minute drive from the college town of Moscow, Idaho.Long before that, he had shown an interest in crime-fighting, a passion that propelled him into academia after turbulent teenage years in which he wrote of being depressed and became addicted to heroin.In 2011, when Mr. Kohberger was 16 and living in Pennsylvania, he wrote in an online forum that he felt like “an organic sack of meat with no self worth” and that he could not find joy in life. He graduated from high school in 2013 and was using drugs at that time, friends have said.But by 2018, he was on the upswing, studying psychology at DeSales University in eastern Pennsylvania and telling one friend that he had not used heroin in two years. He said in a May 2018 message reviewed by The New York Times that he had used drugs only when he was in “a deep suicidal state.”Later that year, he said he would like a job capturing violent criminals but that such a position could be difficult to get. Instead, he wrote, he was considering a career counseling “high-profile offenders.”Mr. Kohberger graduated from DeSales in 2020 and then earned a master’s degree in criminal justice there in 2022. While at the university, Mr. Kohberger studied under Katherine Ramsland, one of the most prominent experts on serial killers. After his guilty plea, Dr. Ramsland said in an interview that she had known him as a polite, respectful student who was “genuinely engaged with the material as a potential researcher” or teacher.Later in 2022, Mr. Kohberger began the Ph.D. program at Washington State in Pullman, and applied for an internship with the local police department.That fall, he clashed with a professor and, after a warning, was terminated from his teaching assistant role around the end of the semester, shortly after the murders but before he was arrested.At the end of the semester, Mr. Kohberger drove with his father back home to the Pocono Mountains region of Pennsylvania, and was arrested there in late December, after investigators matched DNA found on a knife sheath that was left at the crime scene to his family tree.July 23, 2025, 12:37 p.m. ETMike BakerReporting from the courthouse in BoiseDuring a break in the hearing, Kohberger was taken out of the courtroom in shackles. His mother briefly put her head in her hands and fidgeted with her purse. On the other side of the room, family members of the victims mingled, and Steve Goncalves, a victim’s father, gave hugs.July 23, 2025, 12:25 p.m. ETThe judge just took a 10-minute recess. The hearing will resume with statements from another victim’s family.July 23, 2025, 12:16 p.m. ETMike BakerReporting from the courthouse in BoiseAlivea Goncalves, the sister of the victim Kaylee Goncalves, confronted Kohberger, calling him a sociopath and a coward. She pressed him with a series of questions, including: “Where is the murder weapon?” and “What were Kaylee’s last words?” and “Do you feel anything at all?”July 23, 2025, 12:09 p.m. ETMike BakerReporting from the courthouse in BoiseAs Steve Goncalves, a father of one of the victims, confronted Kohberger directly, he stared back at him. But the killer showed signs of discomfort. His leg jostled and his jaw slid, as if he were grinding his teeth.July 23, 2025, 12:00 p.m. ETSteve Goncalves, the father of the victim Kaylee Goncalves, has been outspoken since the murders. He began his victim impact statement by facing Bryan Kohberger and addressing him directly: “Today, we are here to finish what you’ve started,” he said. “Today, you’ve lost control.”Videotranscriptbars0:00/0:49-0:00transcriptToday, we are here to finish what you started. Today, you’ve lost control. Today, we are here to prove to the world that you picked the wrong families. The wrong state, the wrong police officers, the wrong community. You tried to break our community apart. You tried to plant fear. You tried to divide us. You failed. Instead, your actions have united everyone in their disgust for you. The world is watching because of the kids, not because of you. Nobody cares about you. You’re not worth the time, the effort to be remembered.July 23, 2025, 11:53 a.m. ETKim Cheeley, the grandmother of Madison Mogen, mentioned Bryan Kohberger’s family in her statement. “My heart aches for the kids’ roommates and the families of the other victims, and also the family of the perpetrator,” she said. Kohberger’s mother shuddered with emotion.Credit...Kyle Green/Associated PressJuly 23, 2025, 11:48 a.m. ETMike BakerReporting from the courthouse in BoiseAs the victims’ families spoke, law enforcement officers who investigated the murders sat in the jury box, wearing a mix of suits and uniforms. One of the men broke into tears, and shielded part of his face with his hands. Some have occasionally turned their eyes to watch Kohberger.July 23, 2025, 11:46 a.m. ETScott Laramie, the stepfather of the victim Madison Mogen, said their family supported the plea agreement that allows Kohberger to avoid a potential death penalty in exchange for admitting to the murders. He will instead be sentenced to life in prison. Some victims’ relatives have opposed the deal.Credit...Kyle Green/Associated PressJuly 23, 2025, 11:34 a.m. ETMike BakerReporting from the courthouse in BoiseMaddie Mogen’s mother and stepfather stood to give their statement. “This world was a better place with her in it,” her stepfather, Scott Laramie, said. As he did so, Kohberger’s mother grew more emotional.July 23, 2025, 11:28 a.m. ETMike BakerReporting from the courthouse in BoiseMortensen said Kohberger had taken away her ability to trust the world around her. She described panic attacks, flinching at sudden sounds and always making plans for escape everywhere she goes. “I can’t breathe,” she said, taking a strained breath through tears.July 23, 2025, 11:24 a.m. ETDylan Mortensen, a roommate who was in the home as the murders took place and who told the police she saw a masked man pass her room, delivered a victim impact statement. This is the first time she has spoken publicly since the killings.Credit...Kyle Green/Associated PressJuly 23, 2025, 11:22 a.m. ETBethany Funke, one of the surviving roommates from the house, said she would have called 911 right away if she knew what was happening elsewhere in the house. “I still carry so much regret and guilt for not knowing what had happened and not calling right away, even though I understand it wouldn’t have changed anything,” she said in a statement being read by a friend in court.